Just got my December issue of Nintendo Power, and it's cover story is Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for DS. One question in an off-the-cuff interview with Tomonobu Itagaki (head of Team Ninja, the developer) asked about the possibility of seeing Ryu in Brawl. Here's what he said:
NP: "Any chance we'll see Ryu in Super Smash Bros. Brawl?"
TI: "[Laughs] That sounds like it would be really fun. I wonder, is Mr. Sakurai also familiar with ninjas?"
Since this interview is very recent, you would think that he'd deny it, like Keiji Inafune did with Mega Man. But he doesn't really even answer the question, merely saying that it would be cool.
There is other anecdotal evidence to support the idea, if you think about this:
Nintendo has always used the Smash series to promote its' lesser-known games. Earthbound wasn't very well-known before people began to ask what game Ness was from in the original Smash. Fire Emblem was just coming to America for the first time (IIRC) when Melee came out, and so they tossed in Marth/Roy. None of these characters were known about until the release of the respective games.
Now, NG is not exactly an unknown game--the series got its' start on NES with three(!) games that are now available on the VC. Pit, another character that hasn't been seen on a Nintendo system since the NES (except for gameboy), is known to be in the game. The Ice Climbers, coming from similar roots, were introduced in the last installment.
Couple this with the fact that the new Ninja Gaiden DS game is coming out soon after Brawl, giving it free advertising to those unfamiliar with NG, and we have a very strong possibility that our lovable ninja badass will be in the game. If so, I'll finally be able to settle the age-old argument with my friend about who's a better swordsman: Ryu or Link? :)
Thoughts? What do you think he would play like?
